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Sunday, January 06, 2013

Flats Fishing on Biscayne Bay ... by gimleteye

Miami is a corrupt, third world outpost; a third tier American city that has turned its back on its chief attributes -- national parks and natural resources that are unique in the United States. This isn't a view popular in the newspapers (although it is, in the reader comments) or television (WPBT "Issues", anyone?).

I am reminded, on infrequent visits to Biscayne National Park, of the simple shock that one can still view signposts of the natural past despite a hundred years of pollution, the mangrove cutting and wetlands filling, and general disregard of elected officials for laws, regulations and enforcement meant to curb the Great Destroyers.

On a quiet winter day, while the light is low in the sky, it is still possible to find a baby manatee feeding at the shoreline in three feet of water, thrashing the bay bottom only five minutes from the boat ramp. Dolphin and sharks of all sizes, from small blacktip to massive bullsharks sunning in the shallows. There are heron, cormorants, and osprey. There are even a few bonefish left, though to see the solitary numbers is to be sadly reminded of the legions that once roamed the shallow water meadows like squadrons of grey ghosts, seeking out pockets of shrimp and crabs before disappearing to the safety of deeper water.

To sight a bonefish from the deck of a small skiff, one has to look very closely and carefully through the skinny water column. Against a dark bottom or mottled sea grass, they show up as fleeting images, easily confused for barracuda at first glance. It makes one look harder at a shape I call, the green torpedo.

One can go for hours without seeing a bonefish, and unless one's eyes know what to look for, they may be impossible to see much less catch. This kind of fishing isn't for everyone, of course. Most like to throw bait in the water and the faster a tug at the other end of a fishing line, the better. I've always been drawn by the subtlety of flats fishing. The silence. The patience required, the adrenalin and failures to lure these objects of fascination onto a fly or shrimp or small crab baited to a hook.

It turns fishing into an exercise in close observation. That's my preference. I shared the best moments with my father in this pursuit, in Florida Bay. He's gone now. So is Florida Bay. In different ways, these losses make me sad.

My father paid for a guide to take us to remarkable adventures on the flats, always dependent on season, tide, and temperature. His death was in the natural order of time. We come into the world in pain, and it is painful to leave, no matter. But the lightly examined loss of the Everglades, of Florida Bay and the treasures of Biscayne Bay is shocking. This chasm our decades opened represents a breach in thousands of years of natural history and tens of thousands of years of evolution. What brand of intelligence allowed this to happen?

You hear this criticism of mankind levied at church or synagogue or in a mosque on Sunday, but it rarely includes the assignment of sin as a personal violation of the trust between God and that natural world man and woman ought to protect. Somehow the religious right and our radical politics have spurned environmental protection entirely. That's too bad.

I don't make religion of the environment, although that is exactly how the Great Destroyers describe the 'zealotry' of environmentalism. But I do believe that the natural order makes observable, as though through a keyhole, the grand, breathtaking beauty of the planet we share. To me, it is a tragic mistake of organized religion to imagine there is another place -- a heaven -- that awaits us for good personal behavior that somehow fails to account for our destruction of natural order.

If the best we can do with living is to create the conditions that ensure the generations to follow will no longer be able to experience the orderly flow of seasons into years, we are savages. It is said the devil is in the details. So is God. That is what I bring home after a day on Biscayne Bay, failing to catch what I sought yet richer.

2 comments:

see: http://eenonline.org/The EpEN's mission is to educate, encourage, and facilitate congregations, dioceses, provinces, and the Episcopal Church, USA, toward local, regional, national, and international activities for the stewardship of God's Creation.

Quotes hall of fame - worth another look:

Jonathon Dunlop of Australia about the Miami Airport:"This is the most disorganized shambles of an airport that exists on this earth.''April 01, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment on Post__________________________________On "Colony Collapse Disorder":Anonymous said...I say lets wait till the last tree is going to be cut down, the last bit of oil used, the last lowland coastal areas flooded before we make any rash decisions that might effect the economy.April 21, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment_________________________________On Bee “Colony Collapse Disorder” being blamed on cell phones:Anonymous said...Hmmm. What are bees doing with cell phones, anyhow?April 20, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment_________________________________On South Florida Water Supply:Ron Littlepage said...Unfortunately, we know who would win when it comes to allowing development to run amok and it's not the wildlife.April 20, 2007 Eye on Miami Comment Post_________________________________Lesley Blackner said:In Florida, the sad reality is that government exists to serve the development machine, not the citizenry. That's why it's proper to say that in Florida we have government of the developer, by the developer and for the developer.April 22, 2007 Eye on Miami Post_________________________________On City of Miami and Miami Dade County giving $1,000,000 each to Jorge Perez’s Related Group (The Group's 2005 revenues were $3.25 billion.):"It makes as much sense as me donating half my paycheck to Warren Buffett.”May 6, 2007 Miami Herald Columnist Ana Menendez_________________________________On the FCAT Test:"'Florida is a serial mis-user of test scores.''Bob Schaeffer, director for Massachusetts-based FairTest.May 25, 2007 Miami Herald_________________________________Clifford Schulman (Greenberg Traurig Lobbyist):"This is the first time in 33 years that any one has accused me of fraud." June 28, 2007 Miami HeraldI say: hmm.__________________________________Max Rameau, Homeless Activist:"I respect Ron Book for his work with the Homeless Trust, but the Liberty City community and others have given broad support to this idea. I don't know that a big-time millionaire lobbyist can tell us what is best for Liberty City and the black community.'' July 28, 2007 Miami Herald__________________________________"After years of mismanagement under a board of political appointees and neighborhood activists, Miami-Dade County administrators have proposed a new way to run the troubled empowerment zone program. The plan: Bring in new political appointees and neighborhood activists."November 6, 2007 Miami Herald: Reporter Scott Hiaasen______________________________________"Saying "Greater Everglades" and "Northern Everglades" is not saying Everglades -- other places are deserving of being protected too, but there is only one Everglades. The main thing is to keep the 'Main Thing' the main thing -- which, lately, has not been the main thing." Bob Mooney - on Listserve "Everglades Commons"________________________________________"Does anyone in their right mind believe that Florida could conduct postal balloting without a major screw-up or scandal? Heavens, no! The whole country is keenly aware that our state is a sump hole of incompetence and corruption."Carl Hiaasen - March 16, 2008 Miami Herald_______________________________________On the Charter Review: "Commissioners want us to vote on their own pet changes, ideas the review team explicitly rejected. And, they're throwing their blatantly self-serving ballot questions at us at the same time. What a slap in the face to the charter review team — and to all of us!" Michael Lewis of Miami Today - April 10, 2008______________________________________On the Miami Dade County Commission:''Unfortunately, this is a commission that would build a cyanide factory next to a playground if you hired the right 12 lobbyists,'' Miami Lakes Councilman Michael Pizzi - May 14, 2008______________________________________"The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to build communities." President Barack Obama in Fort Meyers - February 10, 2009______________________________________"So."Dick Cheney's response when told that two thirds of Americans did not support the war in Iraq. - Time Magazine 2008______________________________________"It seems like a bad idea can always find a home in the Florida Legislature." - Howard Simon - Executive Director of Florida ACLU - March 24, 2010

______________________________________Complete this sentence: South Florida really needs a..."Regional plan for controlled growth (before it becomes a concrete jungle similar to Houston), and a completely new set of elected officials that make decisions based on what's good for the future of South Florida instead of what's good for their wallets. - Jack McCabe, Real Estate expert who predicted the housing boom's end. - August 29, 2011 Miami Herald